The Real Deal New York

24 hours of human flow across Manhattan distilled into seconds

This animated map shows what neighborhoods people spend the most time in

February 04, 2017 12:30PM

On the street Manhattan can feel like an endless flow of pedestrians. But there are patterns within the madness. The folks at Dark Horse Analytics have animated the flow of people in Manhattan over 24 hours and the results are pretty mesmerizing.

The map is inspired by John Nelson’s “Breathing Earth” — a series of animations the show the changing of the seasons on a global scale in second.

“I wondered if I could make a breathing city,” Joey Cherdarchuk writes on his blog. “Manhattan looks somewhat lung-like, so it seemed natural. Should be a fun, quick project. How naive I was.”